A Manual For Composing A Descriptive Essay About A Person

A descriptive essay is a unique writing opportunity which describes a person by appealing to the senses including sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch.

When you want to write a good descriptive essay about a person you should follow the steps below:

The first thing you should do is select your subjects. Observation is truly the foundation to a great description. If you choose to write about an individual you should visit them and take note of the smells, the sites, the sounds and more. A good descriptive essay will paint a thorough picture for your readers using all of the five senses. You want to create a thesis statement which informs the reader who you are going to describe in your essay.

You also want to select the most dominant details. You want details that support your thesis statement and leave a dominant impression. Not every detail that you write down during the course of your observation will end up in your final paper. This is perfectly acceptable.

The next thing you want to do is organize the descriptions that do end up in your paper. Do you want your paragraphs to be structured in a spatial manner which means they are structured from top to bottom or you can structure them chronologically so that they follow a specific time order or you can structure them from the general to the specific? Your descriptive essay can use any pattern of organization that you feel is most appropriate for your particular assignment including exemplification or narrative.

You want to be sure that you use descriptive words. Avoid using vague words or generalities and instead use sensory words and adjectives. Provide sensory details. If you visit the person and they wear a particular cologne or perfume describe the aroma of what they are wearing. If they often home to themselves while they are thinking describe those sounds. Describe the texture of their clothing or the texture of the room in which they are located if it gives some insight into their person.

You also want to draw a logical conclusion from all of your descriptions. Your job here is to create images for your reader.

When you are writing a good descriptive essay about an individual you want to make sure that you integrate figurative language. Figures of speech are ways that you can compare otherwise dissimilar items and it makes your final essay more forceful and visual. You can integrate things such as personification where you provide human characteristics to objects which are otherwise inanimate, metaphors, similes, overstatements or understatements, onomatopoeia, or symbols.